Recycling programs are beneficial for many reasons. For example: 1) Many American companies rely on recycling programs to provide the raw materials they need to make new products. Recycling in the U.S. is a $236 billion a year industry. 2) More than 56,000 recycling and reuse enterprises employ 1.1 million workers nationwide. 3) The average American business discards one hundred pounds of garbage every day. Most of this garbage goes into landfills, where it's compacted and buried. 4) Recycling requires far less energy, uses fewer natural resources, and keeps waste from piling up in landfills. 5) Recycling offers significant energy savings over manufacturing with virgin materials. For example, manufacturing with recycled aluminum cans uses 95% less energy. 6) Recycling preserves existing landfill space. 7) In 2000, recycling of solid waste prevented the release of 32.9 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE, the unit of measure for greenhouse gases) into the air. 8) Making goods from recycled materials generates far less water pollution than manufacturing from virgin materials. 9) Using recycled materials reduces the need to damage forests, wetlands, rivers and other places essential to wildlife. 10) Recycling and buying recycled products creates demand for more recycled products, decreasing waste and helping our economy.
However, much of the current infrastructure for commercial bulk waste collection does not provide the option of a single bulk collection area for placement of both recyclables and non-recyclable waste containers. Furthermore, many waste collection trucks are not equipped to handle both recyclables and non-recyclable waste containers as the two different containers generally require different mechanisms to allow the waste collection trucks to lift, hold and empty the different containers. Accordingly, when a municipality is forced to choose which type of garbage to collect in a given commercial bulk location, the collection of recyclables is either made more expensive, made less convenient or simply removed altogether.
Therefore, a need exists to provide a device and method to overcome the above problems. A solution is to provide a device that integrates a container for non-recyclable waste, a container for recyclables, and a means for the separate collection of the contents of the two containers using a standard fork lift-operated garbage truck. This device and method of removal allows the truck operator to selectively collect either waste or recycling based solely on the position of the forks.